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TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
66
Abstract
This is a review article that studies the problem of
torture in children. Torture in children is a signifi-
cant worldwide problem, but there are no official
or reliable independent statistics to measure the
magnitude of the problem.
The definition of torture in the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punish ment applies
to adults and children. The Convention on the
Rights of the Child defines children as “every hu-
man being below the age of eighteen years”.
Torture in children happens during peace
times and during political violence and war con-
flicts. The majority of torture victims happen
during peace times. The high-risk groups are im-
poverished children living in the street, children
deprived of parental care, children in conflict with
the law, and children in detention.
During political violence and war the high risk
children are the children detained during political
violence, child soldiers, children internally dis-
placed in refugee camps, detained children during
the war against terrorism and children tortured by
peacekeeping forces.
The perpetrators of torture in children are the
members of the same forces that torture adults,
generally the police, civil police, security guards
trained by police, prison guards, and military
forces.
The paper identifies some preventive measure
and develops recommendations for action at the
local, national and international level.
Keywords: Torture, violence, children, human
rights
“I only wanted to be a child, but they would not
let me.”
A statement written in the tomb of a
street child killed by police in Guatemala.
Violence, exploitation and abuses against
children happen frequently at home, at
school, in the work place, the community,
during peace time, and in armed conflicts.
Violence against children is widespread in all
parts of the world, and hidden from the eyes
of the general public. Recently, these viola-
tions have been the subject of several con-
ferences, reports, and declarations of non-
governmental organizations.1-3 The basic
message of these studies is that no violence
against children is justifiable and all violence
against children is preventable.4
This paper will not analyze all those
abuses but only those in which the perpetra-
tor is an agent of the state or abuse which
happened when the child was under the pro-
tected custody of the state. Torture of a child
Torture in children
Jose Quiroga, MD*
*) Medical Director
Program for Torture Victims
California
USA
jquirogamd@aol.com
STATE OF THE ART
TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
67
is the most serious violation of the basic hu-
man right to personal integrity and respect
for human dignity.
The objectives of this paper are:
1. To review the most relevant literature on
this subject.
2. To identify significant issues related to
torture against children.
3. To identify effective strategies and pre-
ventive programs.
4. To develop recommendations for action
at the international, national, and local
levels.
Background information
Human rights instruments
Definition of torture
Torture is the most serious violation of a
person’s fundamental right to personal in-
tegrity and a pathological form of human
interaction.
The United Nations (UN), in the Con-
vention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punish-
ment (CAT) in 1984, adopted the following
definition:
For the purpose of this Convention, the
term “torture” means any act by which se-
vere pain or suffering, whether physical or
mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person
for such purpose as obtaining from him or
a third person information or a confession,
punishing him for an act he or a third per-
son has committed, or is suspected of having
committed, or intimidating or coercing him
or a third person, or for any reason based on
discrimination of any kind, when such pain
or suffering is inflicted by, or at the instiga-
tion of, or with the consent or acquiescence
of, a public official or other person acting in
an official capacity. It does not include pain
or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or
incidental to lawful sanctions.5
This definition has been universally accepted
by the 146 countries that have currently ra-
tified the Convention.
In summary, torture is defined as a polit-
ical act inflicted by a public official, with the
intent and purpose of extracting a confession
or information, punishment, intimidation,
coercion, or discrimination. The most im-
portant criteria in the definition of torture
are the intention and purpose, not the sever-
ity of the pain. Torture often occurs during
detention when the prisoner is powerless
and under the control of authorities. The
use of force and the infliction of pain under
these circumstances violate the principle of
proportionality, forbidden by international
law.6 Torture has been defined by other
organizations, such as the World Medical
Association, and by individual countries in
their national laws, but the UN definition is
the most applicable and widely accepted for
governments.7
Most countries in their domestic laws
criminalize torture but not cruel, inhu-
man or degrading treatment or punish ment
(CIDT). The countries that practice torture
use a more restrictive definition of torture
and make the severity of pain the most
important criterion of the definition. Later
these countries may increase the threshold
of severe pain to just short of organ failure.
This allows the practice of torture to con-
tinue while officially denying its use.
This definition of torture is the same for
adults and children but we have to be aware
that the threshold of pain for children is
lower than for adults.
Definition of children
Article number one of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) defined
STATE OF THE ART
TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
68
children as “every human being below the
age of eighteen years unless under the law
applicable to the child, majority is attained
earlier.” The convention was adopted in
November, 1989, and entered into force on
September 2, 1990.8
“Each child has the right to his or her
physical and personal integrity, and protec-
tion from all forms of violence. Children,
as human beings, are entitled to enjoy all
the rights guaranteed by the various inter-
national human rights treaties that have
developed from the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights”.4
Article 2 of the CRC states that “State
Parties shall take all appropriate measures to
ensure that the child is protected against all
forms of discrimination or punishment on
the basis of the status, activities, expressed
opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, le-
gal guardians, or family members.”
Article 37 of the CRC specifically de-
clares that State Parties shall ensure that:
“No child shall be subjected to torture or
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment, neither capital punishment nor
life imprisonment without the possibility of
release shall be imposed for offences com-
mitted by person below eighteen years of
age.”
Children are not a homogenous group
and the definition covers different ages and
stages of development. The American Acad-
emy of Pediatrics divides children into four
development stages according to age:
Prenatal: first year
Early childhood: 1 year to 4 years.
Middle childhood: 5 to 10 years.
Adolescence: 11 to 21 years.
The children in each of these age groups
could be a target for torture by a govern-
ment with different types of abuses.
Categories of violence and torture
in children
By age group
Prenatal and early childhood: 1 to 4 years
Abduction of children born in detention,
when their mothers were killed for political
reasons has been reported in Argentina and
Uruguay. This is one of the most egregious
violations of the rights of a child. A good
example is the fight of the “Abuelas of the
Plaza de Mayo” in Argentina.
Early childhood and middle childhood:
5 to 10 years
Forcing children to witness atrocities against
parents, family members or caregivers:
These actions can be considered cruel
and inhuman treatment and, in some cases,
amount to torture. This practice could con-
stitute a war crime or crime against human-
ity when committed as a systematic attack
against civilian populations in times of war.
Children are obliged to witness the
violent detention and torture of parents.
Multiple examples have been documented
in Latin America during Argentina’s “Dirty
War.” Children have also witnessed the
killing of family members as documented
during the Rwandan and Guatemalan geno-
cide.9, 10
Adolescence: 11 to 21 years
Torture during detention for minor crimes.
Torture for political participation.
Torture for religious participation.
Torture for sexual orientation.
Torture during detention for ethnic persecu-
tion.
Torture during detention in adult prisons.
Torture during war time.
By place of occurrence
The UN study of violence against children
selected several settings in which violence is
STATE OF THE ART
TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
69
taking place in the home and family, in schools
and educational settings, in state care and justice
institutions, in places of work, and in the com-
munity. Using this classification, torture can
occur only in the institutional and commu-
nity settings.4
Institutional torture occurs in situations
of children in detention facilities, violence in
the context of the administration of justice
(pre-trial detention) and capital punishment.
Within a community setting, the report de-
scribes police violence in the street and tor-
ture by the judiciary.
Violence in institutional settings
administered by the state
• Torture of children in institutional care.
• Torture of children in custody and deten-
tion.
• Violence and torture against children
with disabilities in state institutions.
Many children live a significant part of
their lives under the control and supervi-
sion of authorities or justice systems. These
institutions vary in scope and can be long
term residential or institutional care, emer-
gency shelter, homeless shelters, and foster
care. Some children are in special medi-
cal facil ities for the disabled or psychiatric
wards. Other children are in custody or
detention. These institutions have responsi-
bility to provide protection and guidance to
the children under their care, but instead,
these children are subjected to violence and
torture.
Violence in the community
• Violence by law enforcement agents.
• Violence and torture of children living in
the street.
• Violence and torture against sexual mi-
norities.
High risk children
Children at the highest risk of being tortured
during peace times are the street children in
their different categories:
• Impoverished children living in the street
• Children deprived of parental care gen-
erally are poor children that have been
abandoned by their biological or adopted
parent. These children are entitled to
protection and assistance from the state,
and are eligible for placement in foster
care or orphanages, but ultimately ended
up homeless.
• Children in conflict with the law.
• Children in detention.
Children at high risk of torture during polit-
ical violence and war conflicts:
• Detained children during political vio-
lence.
• Child soldiers.
• Children living in internally displaced
persons camps in country of origin or in
refugee camps.
• Detained children during the war against
terrorism.
• Children tortured by peacekeepers.
Torture of children during peace times
Torture of impoverished street children
and children in conflict with the law
There has been a significant migration from
rural areas to cities in developing countries.
The newcomers do not receive any help and
they tend to settle in precarious cardboard
towns on the periphery of big cities. They
create a belt of poverty call “favelas” in Bra-
zil, “callampas” in Chile, and “villa miseria”
in Argentina. The income of those living in
poverty or extreme poverty cannot sustain
a family. At an early age, the children are
obliged to work for survival.
STATE OF THE ART
TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
70
It is a reality that the street is both a
home and a workplace for many children.
In the street, they work in undocumented
street jobs cleaning shoes, selling cheap mer-
chandise, or they are pushed towards crime.
These street children face dangers of all
kinds during their daily ambulation: drugs,
drug traffickers, prostitution, or even murder
by death squads in some countries.
These groups of children have been
abandoned and ignored by society. They
are powerless. They are fighting for survival
hour by hour, day by day. Torture and mal-
treatment by police is part of their daily life.
They do not seek medical care. Nobody of-
fers them relief for their suffering. Citizens
have become blind to these children. These
invisible children walk in the city boulevards,
eating when possible, once a day or a few
times a week.
Mullis and Cook11 studied thirty street
children in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They
compared these thirty children with children
of the same age group selected from local
schools and living with their parents. They
measured two groups’ ability to obtain food,
to grow by body mass index (BMI), and
their levels of social support.
The majority of street children (80%)
are not living with their parents. Only 20%
of them visit their family daily, and 30%
had no contact with family. The majority of
street children (87%) reported found a place
to sleep 7 days a week, but 27% reported
not having a residence. Both groups were
able to obtain some daily food, but the qual-
ity of the food was better in school children
and these supported children scored higher
in BMI measurements.11
Reason for detention
The most frequent reasons for detention
were:
• Captured in fraganti stealing a wallet,
food, or opening a car.
• Suspected of a criminal offense.
• Aspiration of glue fumes: considered by
police as an addiction, but used by street
children as a suppressant of hunger and
cold.
• Children’s refusal to give money col-
lected while begging to a police officer
requesting a bribe.
• False accusation of petty crimes such as
stealing or disorder in the street.
• No reason (illegal detentions).
Place of torture
Torture and maltreatment happen in the
street when police detained or transported
children to the police station or to the
outskirts of the city where they were often
abandoned. Torture also happens during
detentions at police headquarters, in pris-
ons, or while children reside in government
custody.
Magnitude of the problem
An Amnesty International survey in 2000
found that 75% of countries practice torture
systematically despite the absolute prohibition
of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment
under international law, even when these
countries have signed the CAT.12
Torture of children is a significant world-
wide problem, but there are not official or
reliable independent statistics to measure the
magnitude of the problem.12
Child violence by security forces is ex-
tremely frequent in the streets or during de-
tention, sometimes without complaints from
the public. The rights of children are not
generally recognized, these abuses are not
reported nor investigated, and few perpetra-
tors are held accountable for their crimes.
The victims do not have the capacity to
report, because they do not have political
STATE OF THE ART
TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
71
power and they consider these maltreat-
ments as normal. If the violation is not
reported, if human services organizations or
governments agencies do not register these
events, the problem does not exist at the na-
tional or international level, and there is no
cause for action.
Few organizations have published reports
on the torture of children. Amnesty Inter-
national, OMCT, Save the Children (UK),
Casa Alianza (Central America), Human
Rights Watch (HRW), and United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF). UNICEF de-
nounces police abuse and torture of children
in their reports and publications under the
heading “Children In Conflict With The
Law”.1, 2, 13-15
Covenant House (Casa Alianza) has
published the most complete report of docu-
mented cases of torture of street children
in Honduras and Guatemala. Casa Alianza
documented 133 cases of torture between
1990 and 1997, 63 from Honduras and 70
from Guatemala. Each case the report pro-
vides a description of the event, the torture
methods applied, and photographs of the
lesions and a statement of the action taken
to prosecute the perpetrator. The majority
of tortured children discussed in the report
were boys 122 (91.7%) and only 11 (8.3%)
were girls, as shown in Table 1.16
Method of torture and killing of children
The methods of torture in children are the
same to those used on adults. Different re-
ports have described children being exposed
to extremes of heat and cold, deprived of
food and water, deprived of sleep, punched,
kicked, beaten with different instruments,
whipped, burned with cigarettes and fire,
electric shocks, hanging, cuts with sharp
instruments, stripped naked and sexually as-
saulted and raped.12, 17
Casa Alianza has documented methods
of torture in the children’s cases of Central
America: humiliation, punching, kicking,
beatings with a police baton or the butt of
a gun, phalange (beating the soles of the
feet), burning with cigarettes, stabbings,
intentional biting by police dogs, hanging of
children by their arms, pouring of caustic
glue on face and hair, and subjecting them
to sexual torture and rape.18
Type of torture in girls
In Honduras, six girls were detained. Five
(83%) of them were raped and the others
were severely beaten. In Guatemala, five
girls were detained. Only one was raped, two
were severely beaten, and two were stabbed
to death.16
Killing of street children
Several reports have documented the killing
of children in detention who have been tor-
tured during police detention.17, 18
There have been reports of unlawful
killings of street children by police, security
officers, and death squads. There are reports
of these killings from countries such as Bra-
zil, Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala.16,
18-20
Killing of street children in Brazil
The world was shocked in 1980 when news-
papers around the world reported the killing
STATE OF THE ART
Table 1. Torture of children in Honduras and Gua-
temala. Honduras from March 1990 to August
1997. Guatemala from 1992 to August 1997.
Male % % Total
Honduras 57 90.5 6 9.5 63
Guatemala 65 92.8 5 7.2 70
Total 122 91.7 11 8.3 133
Source: Table prepared with information from:
Informe de tortura a niños de la calle en Guate-
mala y Honduras. Covenant House. America Latina
1990-1997. Publicación de Casa Alianza, 1997.
TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
72
of street children by police and death squads
in Brazil. Death squads were operating in
nine of the 27 Brazilian states at that time.19
Death squads were hired by shopkeep-
ers to get rid of alleged criminals and petty
thieves. Death squads were staffed by off-
duty police officers, civil police and military.
The police estimate that 500 homeless chil-
dren were murdered each year, mostly while
they slept. Until 2000, some death squads
were still active. Both children and adults
were victims of death squads.21, 22
Roldao Arruda published a report in the
newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo on 1,000
children killed in 1990. He concluded that
30% of these deaths were caused by the po-
lice, 50% by death squads calling themselves
“justiceiros,” and the remaining 20% by
unknown criminals. Most of the policemen
have yet to be convicted for killing street
children.23
Killing of street children in Honduras
and Guatemala
The Covenant House (Casa Alianza) re-
port of the 133 cases reveals that thirty
one (23.3%) of these children were killed.
Twenty of those were killed by the police or
military and eleven were killed by unknown
perpetrators. It is suspected that the killers
were agents of law and order, as shown in
Table 2 and 3.
STATE OF THE ART
Table 3. Torture of Children in Honduras and Gua-
temala 1990-1997. Methods of killing by police or
unknown perpetrator.*
Police Unknown Total %
Honduras
Gun shot 7 3 10 67
Beaten 1 3 4 27
Stabbed 1 1 6
Total 9 6 15 100
Guatemala
Gun shot 8 3 11 69
Stabbed 3 2 5 31
Total 11 5 16 100
*) One child was known to have been killed by a
civilian
Source: Table prepared with information from:
Informe de tortura a niños de la calle en Guate-
mala y Honduras. Covenant House. America Latina
1990-1997. Publicación de Casa Alianza, 1997.
Table 2. Torture of children in Honduras and Gua-
temala 1990-1997. Total of tortured children who
were killed, based on 133 reported cases.
Total torture Killed children %
Honduras 63 15 23.8
Guatemala 70 16 22.8
Total 133 31 23.3
Source: Table prepared with information from:
Informe de tortura a niños de la calle en Guate-
mala y Honduras. Covenant House. America Latina
1990-1997. Publicación de Casa Alianza, 1997.
Methods of killing
The principal methods of killing street chil-
dren in Honduras and Guatemala were gun
shots (mostly in the head) followed by beat-
ing and stabbing, as shown in Table 3.
Torture of children during
political violence and war
Torture of children during political violence
and military dictatorship
Chile
Chile was one of the longstanding democ-
racies in Latin America. A bloody military
dictatorship ruled the country from 1973 to
1989. Since 1990, the country has been a
democratic state with free elections.
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos set up
a National Commission on Political Deten-
tion and Tor ture in 2003. The objective
of the commission was to determine the
number and identity of those who suffered
imprisonment and torture for political rea-
sons during the Pinochet military dictator-
ship. The commission received the testimony
TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
73
of 35,865 victims. 27,000 were accepted im-
mediately as valid and over 7,000 are in revi-
sion. This is the largest data base of records
of detention and torture in the world.
The commission published a Spanish
report and an English executive summary.
The commission reported that 27,255 per-
sons were detained and tortured, 23,856 of
them (87.5%) were men and 3,399 were
women (12.5%).
The report also confirmed that 1,080
of victims (3.96%) were children, as rep-
resented in Table 4. The distribution by
age shows that the majority of the children
(98.1%) were adolescents. Unfortunately,
no further analysis will be possible because
their testimonies will remain confidential
and no one will have access to them for the
next 50 years.24
Terrorist and subversive activities was
the justification for detention and torture in
978 of these cases (92.5%).
Foundation for the Protection of
Children Injured by States of Exception
(PIDEE), an organization oriented to the
rehabilitation of child victims of repression
during the military dictatorship in Chile, was
founded in 1979. More than 3,000 children
received services until 1992. Some of the
children were physically tortured during
imprisonment and the majority witnessed
the violent invasion of their home, destruc-
tion of their belongings by security forces,
military, or police, and witnessed the beating
and detention of their parents or another
member of their family. Although some
only witnessed the brutal detention of their
parents and were not directly tortured, the
psychological impact was so intense and
prolonged that the experience is equivalent
to psychological torture.
The children’s behavior and family life
changed dramatically. The children became
aggressive, irritable with constant crying,
exhibited nervous tics, stuttering, and exhib-
ited extreme dependence on adults. Symp-
toms also included eating problems (anor-
exia or bulimia), sleeping problems such as
difficulty getting to sleep, bed wetting, and
nightmares, poor school performance due
to memory loss, difficulty concentrating,
dyslexia, fear of the dark, and fear of those
in uniform. These children lost their child-
hood.25
PIDEE developed individual, family and
group therapy, psycho pedagogy methods,
and cultural workshops. Children also re-
ceived drama, music and art therapy. Dur-
ing play and art therapy children talked and
drew about death, jail, absence of the father,
unemployment and the wish that the de-
tained parent would return home.25-27
The return to a normal life depends on
the loss of fear that the traumatic experi-
ence will not be repeated. The return of the
detained parent also improved the chances
of return to a normal life, but unfortunately,
this was not always possible. In spite of this,
most treated children developed their cap-
acity to adapt to the new situation.
Argentina
Military dictatorships ruled Argentina from
1976 to 1983. During this period, many
babies were kidnapped. Many of these par-
ents were killed. In other cases, pregnant
mothers were taken to clandestine centers.
STATE OF THE ART
Table 4. Children detained during the military dic-
tatorship in Chile. September 1973 to March 1990.
Age Number Percentage
16 to 17 766 70.9
13 to 15 226 20.9
Under 12 88 8.2
Total 1080 100.0
Source: Table prepared with the information of the
report of National Commission on Political Deten-
tion and Torture, 2005.24
TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
74
Babies born in these centers and kidnapped
from their parents were adopted by military
families with a new name and identity. The
objective of this crime was to remove the
children from subversive families to give to
“good” families.28
The grandmothers of these babies or-
ganized themselves and became “Abuelas
(Grandmothers) de Plaza de Mayo” with
a mandate to fight for the return of their
grandchildren and to defend the right to an
identity.29, 30
Since 1977, over 400 children have been
recorded as missing. The Abuelas have in-
vestigated all adoptions in local and federal
courts during this period. They have also
examined all registered births in govern-
mental offices. In 1997, the Abuelas began
a national campaign among young people
to investigate their identity if they have any
doubts about their lineage.29, 30
The Argentinean government created the
National Committee for the Right Identity
(CONADI) in 1992. The main objective
of the agency is to scientifically investigate
identities. The process includes the use
of a database of the missing children, in-
vestigation of the legality of an adoption,
and blood analysis of immunogenetic tests
conducted by the National Bank of Genetic
Data. These genetic analysis permits con-
clusively include or exclude an individual
from a biological family. By February, 2009,
the Abuelas identified 97 of the disappeared
children.29
The Philippines
A study of child torture victims in the
Philippines reported 415 cases of torture
in children over two decades from 1976 to
1995. This period is reflective of the three
military dictatorships of Ramos, Aquino,
and Marcos. The victims in this study have
several factors in common: poverty, relative
geographic remoteness, growing industri-
alization with strong presence of military
forces to protect industries, and political
families residing in close geographical prox-
imity. These poor, rural, heavily militarized
areas, with little communication outside the
region, make for very difficult conditions in
which to report and document human rights
abuses. All these factors favor impunity for
perpetrators.
By age group, the highest numbers of
documented cases were between 15-18
(80%) years of age. Of these, 64% were
tortured during arrest. Only 8% of perpetra-
tors were charged with a crime, and most of
them were 58% released after detention and
torture.
Torture of children during armed conflict
In modern wars, the civilian population is
often a target. Children are amongst the first
casualties of any armed conflict, always the
most vulnerable and innocent of victims. In
the last decade alone 1.5 million children
have died in wars. Four million have been
disabled and a further 10 million trauma-
tized. Many children suffer violence at the
hands of enemy forces in several ways:
• They can be detained and tortured to
glean information relative to the where-
abouts of parents or other family mem-
bers.
• They can be killed without registration of
death and reported as missing children.
• Children are detained and tortured be-
cause of suspicion of collaboration with
enemy forces.
• Children witness the killing of his/her
complete family as in Rwanda and Gua-
temala.
• Children survive as war orphans.
• Rape of young women during war is
a battle strategy as in the Balkan war,
STATE OF THE ART
TORTURE Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
75
Rwandan genocide, and now in Uganda
and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
During armed conflict in the Philippines, the
projected goals of torture of these children
were to obtain information about armed re-
sistance groups. Torture was also used in at-
tempts to force a confession, to incriminate
others, to take revenge, to create fear in the
community, and to destroy the personality of
the victims.17
As in the case of Amir, described by
the paper of C. Green, a child was tortured
in front of his father to force a confession.
Later, Amir witnessed the torture of his
father, which led to his father’s death.31
Torture of child soldiers
Child soldiers are the children who have
been singled out for recruitment below 18
years of age. Armed forces and armed op-
position groups exploit them as combatants
around the world.
Although most child soldiers are between
15 and 18 years old, significant recruitment
starts at the age of 10 and the use of even
younger children has been recorded.
Approximately 250,000 children under
the age of 18 are thought to be fighting in
conflicts around the world, and hundreds
of thousands more are members of armed
forces who could be sent into combat at any
time.
Poverty and years of armed conflict
have made it easier for a whole generation
of children to be drawn into the armed
conflict. For some, soldiering has become a
form of survival or has represented a form of
identity in a context of widespread trauma.
Other children have been drawn, sometimes
after years of indoctrination, to the political,
ethnic or military agendas of their chosen
group. In such situations it is more accurate
to talk of indirect force rather than volun-
teering.
During training children are more afraid
of their officers than the dangers to which
they are exposed. Cowardice, failure to fol-
low orders without question are severely
punished. Beating, whipping, hanging,
solitary confinement, sexual abuses, and
sometimes punishment by death are fre-
quent during indoctrination and training.
Easily manipulated, children are sometimes
coerced to commit grave atrocities, including
rape and murder of civilians using assault
rifles such as AK-47s and G4s. Some are
forced to injure or kill members of their own
families or other child soldiers. Others serve
as porters, cooks, guards, messengers, spies,
and sex slaves.
Demobilization of child soldiers cannot
happen without substantial support from
the international community to provide suf-
ficient financial and technical assistance to
all actors involved in the process to ensure
a comprehensive and coordinated approach.
The authorities, commanders and leaders
of armed political groups are responsible to
prevent recruitment of children and to allow
and facilitate their demobilization.32-34
Torture of children
living in internally displaced camps
Some 26 millions people worldwide are cur-
rently living as internally displaced persons
(IDP). They were forced to flee their home
because their lives were at danger but they
did not cross an international border.
4.6 million people were newly displaced
in 2008. The biggest new displacement in
the world was in the Philippines, where
600,000 people fled fighting between the
government and rebel groups. There were
also massive new displacements in Sudan,
Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq,
Pakistan, Somalia, Columbia, Sri Lanka and
STATE OF THE ART
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76
India. The largest internally displaced popu-
lations are found in Sudan (4.9 million),
Colombia (up to 4.3 million) and Iraq (2.8
million).
Women and children are a high risk
group for violence and human rights abuses
by government forces and other groups.
In 2008 displaced women and girls were
par ticularly exposed to rape and sexual vio-
lence, domestic violence and exploitation.
Displaced children are extremely vulner-
able. In many countries, they were forced
to work or they could not go to school.
Displaced children were at risk of forcible
recruitment in at least 13 countries where
IDP camps had been infiltrated by armed
groups.35
Torture of unaccompanied refugee minors
Unaccompanied refugee minors are chil-
dren and youth who migrate to another
country because their parents or caregiv-
ers have died, abandoned them, or simply
gotten separated amid the chaos of war or
civil unrest. Some of them are street chil-
dren. The number of unaccompanied mi-
nors seeking asylum has increased dramati-
cally in industrialized countries in recent
years. During their displacement they are at
high risk of violence and torture by police,
border patrol forces, military or other vio-
lent groups.
Refugee minors who have entered an-
other country can experience brutal deten-
tion. They are placed in custody or in deten-
tion centers pending a determination of their
legal status. Frequently they are denied ac-
cess to legal counsel, or education. They are
also subject to punitive measures, such as
handcuffing, shackling, solitary confinement.
In some countries they are detained with
violent young offenders or adults.36 The real
alternative is placing these children in foster
care and community-based services.
Torture of children in armed conflict
and the war against terrorism
The torture of children in the context of
counterterrorism pre-dates the “War on
Terror” launched by the United States gov-
ernment in 2001. There are many reports
of the detention and torture of children in
Colombia, Peru, Sudan, Kenya, and the
Philippines. Children become victims much
in the same ways of those children suffering
through armed conflict.37
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports
that the U.S. military authority, operat-
ing the Multinational Forces in Iraq, has
detained some 2,400 children since 2003.
Adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17
have been detained in Iraq and accused of
supporting insurgents and militias. Some of
the children are as young as ten. Detention
rates increased from 25 children in a month
in 2006 to 100 children in 2007.38
The U.S. military keeps most children at
Camp Cropper in Baghdad. Children have
been interrogated for days and weeks by mili-
tary units in the field before being sent to
prison. They do not have legal support and
they have limited contact with their families.
The average length of detention is 130 days
and some of them have been detained for
more than a year without charges or trial.
The United States, as of May 12, 2008, is
holding 513 children as “imperative threats
to security”.38
A UN committee said it was concerned
about reports of “cruel, inhuman or degrad-
ing treatment” of children held in Guantan-
amo and Iraq. Some of these children have
been classified as “unlawful combatants,”
and have been charged with war crimes and
subjected to prosecution by military tribu-
nals without due account of their status as
children.”
The United States is holding three de-
tainees at Guantanamo, in custody for more
STATE OF THE ART
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77
than five years, who were initially detained
as adolescents. Two of these young men,
Omar Khadr and Mohammed Jawad, are
both facing trials before a military commis-
sion. Mohhammmed El-Gharani, now 21,
was detained when he was just 14 years old.
He has tried to commit suicide at least seven
times. There is clear evidence these boys
have been tortured.
“Under international law, adults who
recruit children for combat are to be pros-
ecuted for that offense. But the children
caught in combat are to be protected not
prosecuted,” said Diane Amann, a law
professor at UC Davis University. The
Geneva Convention and the Convention
on the Rights of the Child hold that it is
the responsibility of the state that captures
juveniles in the battle fields to work to
rehabilitate them towards integration into
society.39
U.S. forces have not released statistics on
the number of children that have been trans-
ferred to Iraqi custody.38 Iraqi military forces
have detained at least 220 children during
military operations. The detained children
are treated as adults. Local NGOs have
documented evidence of torture perpetrated
during interrogation.40
Torture of children by peacekeepers
A recent report by Save the Children de-
scribes the abuse of children in post conflict
areas by peacekeepers that have been drafted
to help them. The report documents cases of
sexual abuse of children in Ivory Coast, DR
Congo, Burundi, Liberia, Southern Sudan,
Eritrea, and Haiti. Most of these abuses go
unreported and unpunished, with children
too scared to report them.41
The report identified different forms of
sexual abuse such as trading sex for food,
forced sex, child prostitution, and sexual
slavery. The vulnerable children were or-
phans, children separated from their parents,
children from poor families, children dis-
placed from their home communities, and
children who depend on humanitarian as-
sistance for survival.
These abuses have been chronically
under reported because children fear the
loss of material assistance and support, and
they fear the stigmatization, and the threat
of retribution or retaliation. In some cases,
there is a cultural acceptance to the abuse of
children. Children do not know how to re-
port the crimes, they feel powerless to report
it, there is a lack of effective legal services,
and the children have a lack of faith in the
response.
In the cases that have been officially
reported few victims received adequate re-
sponse, treatment, or justice in the form of
perpetrator punishment. The report made
three key recommendations: an effective lo-
cal mechanism of the reporting of abuses,
a new global watchdog to monitor the situ-
ation, and efforts to tackle the root causes or
drivers of abuse.41
Physical and psychological
consequences
Psychological consequences
of torture in children
The mental health consequences of torture
to the individual are usually more persistent
and protracted than the physical aftereffects.
The Center for Integrative and Develop-
ment Studies of the University of Philippines
has extensive experience in the study of the
psychological consequences of torture in
child survivors.17
During torture, children loose control
of the situation and have no access to the
in ternal or external resources of an adult.
Adults or family can not protect them and
they feel extremely vulnerable. They do not
have the ability to act in this crisis situation,
STATE OF THE ART
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78
and they become apathetic and indifferent
when they loose faith in adults.
In a sample of 415 children, research-
ers found that child torture victims feel fear
and anxiety within their immediate environ-
ment, especially when they are dealing with
strangers. The symptoms increased when
they were confronted with their own experi-
ences.17
The children felt anxious if they were
alone. They suffered from sleep problems
and recurrent nightmares. They also suffered
from feelings of helplessness and apathy. The
loss of self-esteem due to their experience of
extreme humiliation attacked their self re-
spect and personal identity.
Sudden behavioral changes occurred
and children became violent, overly depend-
ent, withdrawn, neglectful of their routines,
and tended to isolate themselves. They also
had learning difficulties and showed poor
performance when they returned to school.
Their memory and concentration were af-
fected and attention span was limited.
The detention and torture of a child
breaks up the harmony of a family. The
family is fearful that other relatives could be
accused of a political crime and detained.
They feel powerless.
Similar symptoms have been found
in child victims of severe political repres-
sion in Latin America. Individual children
responded in different ways. They experi-
enced high levels of fear, anxiety, insecurity,
and aggressiveness. They had difficulties
expressing themselves corporally or emo-
tionally. They complained of insomnia and
nightmares and regressive behaviors such as
bed-wetting. Argentine psychologists have
described children with high intellectual
abilities, but emotional immaturity.28
John Briere, Ph.D., has studied severely
abused and neglected children. He believes
these traumas interrupt normal child de-
velopment, such as the acquisition of self
capacities. Impaired self capacities lead to
reliance on cognitive, emotional, and dis-
sociation avoidance strategies that further
preclude the development of self capacities.
Consequently, these children suffer more
psychological distress when they experience
traumatic events.42
Physical consequences of the torture of children
Few child victims of torture received medi-
cal care, thus the documentation of physical
consequences is scant. An exception has
been the 133 cases of the torture of children
in Honduras and Guatemala documented by
Casa Alianza in order to prosecute the per-
petrators. The findings were published in a
book. All of those victims showed acute tem-
porary injuries, such as bruises, hematomas,
lacerations, cuts, burns, cigarette burns, and
fractures of teeth or bones, that were docu-
mented with photographs.9
The most important physical conse-
quence of torture is chronic long-lasting
pain experienced in multiple sites. Survivors
also experience diverse psychophysiologic
symptoms.7 PIDEE in Chile has docu-
mented frequent headaches and abdominal
pain in child victims.28
Approaches to treatment
Child victims of torture is a group with
immense unmet needs that has been aban-
doned by society. They look for medical care
only in extreme circumstances. The informa-
tion on treatment of children torture victims
is scant or nonexistent.
The majority of child victims recover
from their physical injuries and they are
apparently functioning, but psychological
symptoms are persistent. Of the 415 cases
reported in the Philippines only six have un-
dergone complete psychological treatment.17
The approach to treatment developed by
STATE OF THE ART
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79
PIDEE in Chile and in other Latin Ameri-
can countries has been successful. Guate-
malan rural health promoters help child
survivors of torture and repression in Mayan
communities. They base their psychosocial
assistance on the cultural traditions of the
indigenous populations, such as oral story
telling, dramatization, use of masks, religious
practices and natural plant resources. The
health promoters use workshops organized
as supplements to other development and
health projects.28
John Briere, Ph.D., developed a model
of treatment for children severely abused
and neglected. He called the approach self-
trauma model. The model is a synthesis of
current dynamic, cognitive, and behavioral
approaches that have been found helpful in
the treatment of severe child abuse trauma.
The model is based on the concept that
symptoms in abused and neglected children
are hyper developed adaptive mechanisms to
maintain internal stability. The treatment is
oriented toward helping the child survivors
to do better what he or she is already at-
tempting to do.42
It is necessary to study whether the
symptoms of a child survivor of torture fol-
low the same pattern of the abuse and ne-
glected children of Briere’s group.
Torturers and impunity
Torturers
Although torture has been practiced for
millennia, knowledge about perpetrators of
torture and how they are trained has been
difficult to find. Manuals on techniques for
interrogation and curricula for training intel-
ligence officers have been classified until re-
cently. Psychologically, perpetrators are usu-
ally “normal,” but subjected to brainwashing
or a dissociative process.7
The perpetrators of torture in children
are the members of the same forces that
torture adults generally the police, civil po-
lice, security guards trained by police, prison
guards, and military forces. Rebel Forces are
also perpetrators when they control and ad-
minister a territory. It has been documented
that child soldiers also act as perpetrators of
atrocities to other children and adults.
In situations of war, the principal per-
petrators are the military and paramilitary
forces (69%).17
Impunity
The lack of social and political power of the
victims favors almost complete impunity for
the perpetrators. Children do not file com-
plaints or they do not report crimes com-
mitted by adults, especially if the perpetrator
is a member of the police or another state
agency. Reasons child survivors do not file
complaints include:
• Fear of reprisals.
• Lack of impartiality in the investigation.
• The same state organization that com-
mitted the crime investigates the facts.
The Istanbul Protocol could be a useful in-
strument in bringing perpetrators of the tor-
ture of children to justice. The assessment of
torture survivors has only recently been sys-
tematized. The Istanbul Protocol is a manual
on the effective investigation and documen-
tation of torture and other cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment. It
includes modules for medical, psychological,
and legal professionals. The Protocol was
approved as an International Instrument by
the General Assembly of the United Nations
resolution 55/89 on December 4, 2000.43
Use of the international human rights system
to protect abuses and torture of children
Issuing worldwide urgent appeals
Since 1991, OMCT has been sending out
STATE OF THE ART
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80
urgent appeals under the heading “Child
Concern,” requesting immediate and ef-
fective actions concerning specific cases of
violence against a child. These requests are
circulated to several thousand recipients
around the world. After receiving informa-
tion of a reliable source and double checking
the information in the country, OMCT is-
sues an urgent action appeal.
Use of the Human Rights Committee
and Committee against Torture (CAT)
Philippines
The Philippines was scheduled to report to
the UN Human Rights Committee in 2003.
Philippines NGOs lead by PREDA prepared
an alternative report of the juvenile Justice
system in the country. PREDA and the other
NGOs made a powerful presentation during
the briefing session and in a press confer-
ence in Geneva. The Committee report cited
several references to this alternative report
and made requests for changes to the legal
system.
Honduras
In 1996, the Supreme Court of Honduras
implemented a rule that allowed judges to
send under-age detainees to jails holding
adults. This detention plan, called ”Auto-
acordado,” violated the Honduras Constitu-
tion and the CPC. Casa Alianza and other
NGOs began a program to monitor jails and
document violations of the human rights
of detained children. They presented 300
Habeas Corpus cases that were rejected by
the judiciary on “Autoacordado” resolution
grounds. Casa Alianza and CEJIL presented
the problem to the Inter American Com-
mission on Human Rights. The Commission
accepted the cases and forced the State to
cancel the rule and compensate each child
with US $20 per day of illegal imprison-
ment.44
Use of the Inter American Human Rights Court
Guatemala
In 1990, five street boys, aged 15-20 were
kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the
police in Guatemala. The bodies of four of
them were found in a place called “Bosques
de San Nicolas.”
The boys’ eyes had been enucleated,
their ears, and tongues cut off.
Casa Alianza brought criminal charges
against four policemen in a Guatemalan
Court. After three years litigation, the police-
men were acquitted. Casa Alianza and CE-
JIL presented the case to the Inter American
Commission on Human Rights in Washing-
ton. The Inter American court of Human
Rights in Costa Rica ordered the Guate-
malan Court to reopen the criminal case
against the accused. The Guatemalan gov-
ernment was ordered to pay US $500,000 to
the families of the children, name a school
after victims, and implement a national plan
to benefit street children. This was the first
case in the history of the Inter American
court in which children were the victims.18
These are three land mark examples of
human rights organizations effectively utiliz-
ing the International Human Rights Com-
missions and Courts. These cases also set
an example for advancing the application of
law at the domestic level in the fight against
impunity and the process of obtaining repar-
ations for the victims and their families.44
Strategies and effective programs
for prevention
The majority of torture in children happens
during peace times and the victims are the
impoverished street children.
Planning prevention
Prevention is based on the identification of
the risk factors. These are the most signifi-
cant risk factors for children:
STATE OF THE ART
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81
• A high proportion of poverty and ex-
treme poverty.
• A high proportion of children in the fam-
ilies of the population or country under
study.
• Violence at home and/or dysfunctional
families.
• Failure of social support system to pro-
tect neglected, abandoned, and abused
children.
• The use of the justice system against chil-
dren in need instead of providing protec-
tion.
• Lack of training of law enforcement and
juvenile system personnel on child devel-
opment, needs of neglected children, and
children’s legal rights.
We can measure the magnitude of these risk
factors in a social group, region or country.
The highest levels of poverty and extreme
poverty in the world are found in Sub-Saha-
ran Africa, South Asia, East Asia, the Pacific,
and Latin America according to the most
recent study of the World Bank.45
In Latin America, Haiti, Honduras,
Nicaragua, and Guatemala are the countries
with the highest proportion of poverty and
families with the highest proportion of chil-
dren. In Honduras and Guatemala there is a
higher level of awareness and a coalition of
NGOs interested in the subject. Honduran
groups are already studying the magnitude
of the problem.
Similar situations can be found in South
Asia in countries such as Bangladesh, Paki-
stan, India, and Sri Lanka.
The plight of street children and their
deaths was a matter of public concern in
many Latin American countries in the eight-
ies. The first Latin American seminar on
community alternatives for assistance to
street children was held in Brazil in 1984.
Other countries have developed Pro-
grams to prevent the torture in children in
conflict with the law.
Proposed actions In the community
• Organize a network of NGOs interested
in the rights of children.
• Create a social support system to help
children that have been neglected, aban-
doned or abused.
• Organize and empower street children as
social actors, aware of their rights, to gain
access to education and health services.
• Public opinion and media campaign to
promote positive image of the needs of
street children.
• Monitoring and reporting of abuses:
research shows an effective and transpar-
ent data collection and publication is
required. The Defense for Children In-
ternational has studied this problem and
has developed twelve indicators of vio-
lence against children deprived of liberty.
These are minimum standards that every
country should be able to produce and
publish.46
Proposed actions in the justice system47
High level training of all personal working
with children in the Juvenile Justice System
• Inter-sectorial training courses for those
who are in direct contact with children
(including judges, prosecutors, police
officers, military personnel, prison staff,
lawyers, and social workers).
• Detention as the last resort for criminal
offenses by studying the possibility of al-
ternative sanctions.
• Legal support: most of the abuses of a
child happen at the time of arrest, during
interrogation by officials, and while in
police custody at the police station. The
conditions of detention are generally bad
and the children are often detained with
adults.
STATE OF THE ART
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82
• Support for detained children at police
stations, in prisons and in courts by
trained volunteers, social workers, parale-
gals, or lawyers to monitor their situation.
These juvenile advocates are contacted
upon the arrest of a child to help to find
the child’s parents. Some countries allow
a lawyer to be present at the police sta-
tion, and in other countries an attorney
may be present as a silent witness, or
only after 24 hours of police detention.
• Maintain a database on Juvenile Justice
Indicators such as the number of cases
received, accepted, and referred.
Ending impunity
• Police accountability through review
board, Ombudsman, NGOs.
• Criminalization of violence, torture, or
killing of children by the authorities.
• Creation of an effective complaint sys-
tem.
• Independent and impartial investigation
of any claims of torture.
• Criminal, civil, and administrative pros-
ecution against individuals responsible
for these human rights violations.
Legislative changes
Each government should adopt legislation
to create an independent Juvenile Justice
System (JJS). The JJS should be based on in-
ternational treaties and international stand-
ards. Governments should also adopt legal
requirements to implement and monitor the
United Nations 15 Juvenile Justice Indica-
tors. In addition, governments should adopt
the independent inspections recommended
by the Additional Protocol of CAT.
Strategies for social change:
the example of Brazil
An example of a strategy on prevention is
in operation now in Brazil. Many NGOs
working with street children organized a
national network called the National Street
Children’s Movement (MNMMR). These
NGOs and advocacy groups were able to
get the support of the press to create public
awareness on the magnitude of the problem.
They were also able to organize the street
children by sectors in a city. The first “Na-
tional Street Children Congress” was held
in Brazil in 1986. These organizations began
to discuss a long term strategy for social
change to eradicate the root causes of the
extreme poverty and other risk factors for
street children.
Local, national and international
recommendations
To IRCT Secretariat
Investigate possible sources of funding for an
international program related to the torture
of children oriented initially to study the
magnitude of the problem, advocacy, preven-
tive programs and research. These programs
should be implemented in a geographical
area with high prevalence of torture and kill-
ing of street children as in Central America
and South Asia.
To donor governments and foundation
To support the effort of international organ-
izations and local NGOs to investigate and
rehabilitate child torture survivors.
To national networks and local centers
Each network and center should:
• Identify in each country and region
which international treaties related to
children have been signed and ratified:
Convention On The Rights Of The Child.
• Identify if these international obligations
have been codified in domestics laws.
• Identify children at high risk of being de-
tained, maltreated and tortured.
STATE OF THE ART
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83
• Identify and collaborate with others
NGOs interested in the plight of tortured
children.
• Monitoring: collect any existing informa-
tion in your area to measure the magni-
tude of the problem, particularly reasons
for detentions, torture by organization
and regions of the country, age groups,
and socio economic status of the victims.
• Determine whether the registration of
age is carried out systematically during
detention.
• Create awareness of the magnitude of the
problem at the level of community and
civil society.
How to measure the magnitude of the problem
in a center or programme.
Quantitative indicators:
Analysis of child population enrolled in a
rehabilitation program
A rehabilitation program upon admission
of a survivor of torture should record the
age and the age at the time of the torture to
identify:
• Number of torture survivors admitted to
the program below 18 year of age.
• Number of adults admitted to the pro-
gram for treatment of torture suffered
when they were children.
Children in conflict with the law
• Number of children in preventive deten-
tion.
• Number of children admitted with phys-
ical evidence of abuse after police investi-
gation.
• Sexual abuse in detention.
• Number of children in adult prison.
• Number of children in adult cells.
• Number of children in solitary confine-
ment.
• Child deaths in detention.
How to improve reporting
• Review check list of violence related is-
sues.
• Review definition and use definition pro-
vided by UNSGVAC Study.
• Broaden the base of participation in re-
porting including representatives such
as parents, classmates, teachers, associ-
ations, and other professionals with
whom the child has contact.
• Develop permanent monitoring system in
institutions.
• Support and develop child rights coali-
tions.
• Develop national advocacy campaigns
among the public and the authorities on
the urgency of the problem.
Conclusion
The highest risk groups and the highest
prevalence of torture or murder of children
are the street children and the children in
conflict with the law.
The most significant risk factors are
poverty, extreme poverty, high proportion
of children in a family, and the failure of
society to protect neglected, abandoned, and
abused children.
The most important solution to improve
torture and killing among children is a
strategy for social change that combats the
problem of extreme poverty and provides a
positive prevention model program.
STATE OF THE ART
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84
Annex 1
Organizations working to promote
children rights
These organizations have been identified be-
cause their names are listed in scientific pub-
lications, United Nations, and NGO reports.
United Nations
Office of the United Nations High Commis-
sioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
United Nations Department of Peacekeep-
ing Operations (DPKO)
United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP)
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC)
United Nations World Health Organization
(WHO)
International organizations
Advocacy and Child Protection, Consortium
for Street Children, UK
Amnesty International (AI)
Casa Alianza in Latín América: Costa
Rica, Guatemala. Honduras, Nicaragua,
México.
Committee on the Rights of the Child, The
Netherlands
Center for Justice and International Law
(CEJIL)
Consortium for Street Children, UK
Defense for Children International (DCI)
Global initiative to end all corporal punish-
ment of children, UK
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
International Association of Youth and Fam-
ily Judges and Magistrates (IAYFJM)
International Federation of Red Cross and
Red Crescents Societies
International Juvenile Justice Observatory
(IJJO)
International Institute for Child Rights and
Development (IICRD)
International Rehabilitation Council for Tor-
ture Victims (IRCT)
International Save the Children Alliance,
Norway
Penal Reform International (PRI)
Save the Children, UK
Terre des hommes – aide à l’enfance (Tdh)
World Vision International
World Organization Against Torture (OMCT)
Coalition of International Organizations related
to Children Rights
Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice (IPJJ)
Office of the United Nations High Commis-
sioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
United Nations Department of Peacekeep-
ing Operations (DPKO)
United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP)
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC)
Committee on the Rights of the Child;
Defense for Children International (DCI)
International Association of Youth and Fam-
ily Judges and Magistrates (IAYFJM)
International Juvenile Justice Observatory
(IJJO)
Penal Reform International (PRI); Save the
Children UK
Terre des hommes – aide à l’enfance (Tdh);
and
World Organization Against Torture
(OMCT)
National organizations
Argentina
Center of Legal and Social Studies on
Childhood and Youth
Cambodia
Bar Association of Cambodia
STATE OF THE ART
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85
Costa Rica
Defense for Children International, Costa
Rica
Egypt
Association for Human Rights Legal Aid
(AHRLA)
Honduras
Center for Investigation and Promotion of
Human Rights in Honduras (CIPRODE)
Committee for the Defense of Human
Rights in Honduras (CODEH)
Coordinator of Institutions for the Right of
the Child (COINPRODEH)
Centro de Prevención Tratamiento y Reha-
bilitación para las Victimas de la tortura y
sus familiares (CPTRT)
India
National Judicial Academy
Kenya
Child Rights Advisory Documentation and
Legal Center (CRADLE)
Kyrgyzstan
Youth Human Rights Group
Malawi (Benin)
Eye of the Child in Blantyre
Malawi CARER
Center for Legal Assistance (CELA)
in Liliongwe
Youth Watch Society, Mzuzur
Philippines
Ateneo Human Rights Center, Child Rights
Unit
Free Legal Assistance Volunteers Association
(FREELAVA)
Philippine Action for Youth Offenders (PAYO
)
People’s Recovery, Empowerment and De-
velopment Assistance Foundation Inc
South Africa
Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child
Abuse and Neglect (RAPCAN)
Uganda
Defense for Children International-Uganda
Legal Aid Clinic
April 26, 2009
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